If the offered the conscripts the option of a kollel-style life (sleeping in doors, eating most meals at home, with a wife, not getting shot at, not needing to “jump” at a moment’s notice, etc.), I suspect most would choose it. Indeed, the fact that Israel is one of the few country’s to use conscription suggests that. That being the case, if a kollel person is a zionist they are being a hypocrite, and the fact that someone feels the need to justify a kollel life relative to the army suggests the person is a zionist (i.e. one who favors having “forever” war with the Arabs in order to give persons of Jewish descent political power). For someone who regards zionism as apikurses, and is willing to accept an autonomous non-sovereign Jewish community with a non-Jewish state as an alternative to the zionism, there would never be a need to justify refusing to serve in the army.
Menu